Posts Tagged ‘1710’

Antique Engraved Glass

Engraving, whereby a decorative pattern is finely cut onto the surface of the glass, dates back to Roman times. The very earliest types of engraving were diamond-point engraving, which involves scratching fine lines into the glass with a sharp instrument (usually a diamond stylus), and wheel engraving, where the design is cut into the glass by means of a rotating
wheel. Stipple engraving, a more sophisticated form of diamond point engraving, where patterns of tiny dots rather than lines at used to create a shaded design, was first used from c.1621 acid etching, which involves burning a design out of the top layer of glass with acid, evolved with the invention
hydrofluoric acid c.1770 and was widely used in Britain.
Although glass was engraved from Roman times, and examples of fine engraving exist on 15th–century Venetian glass, the widespread use of such techniques as diamond-point and stipple engraving dates mainly from the second half of the 16th century. These techniques were introduced to decorators in the Low Countries by itinerant Venetian glassworkers. Wheel engraving was first used in Germany in the late 16th century.
DIAMOND-POINT AND STIPPLE ENGRAVING Diarnond-point engraving, in which the design or decoration is scratched onto the surface of the glass by a sharp diamond stylus, is particularly suited to thin-walled glass too hard to withstand wheel engraving. It was the only engraving technique suitable to
be used on delicate cristallo glass. Diamond-point engraving was therefore quite common on 15th-century Venetian and later facon de Venice (”in the style of Venice”) glass. However, the technique did not reach its apogee until it was taken up in the Low Countries during the 17th century, where it was carried out by both amateur (those who decorated glass as a hobby) and professional glass decorators. Anna Roemers Visscher (1583-1651) was an amateur glass decorator in Amsterdam, where she engraved delicate designs of flowers, fruit, and insects, as well as lines of poetry in calligraphic script, on beakers and Romer (a type of drinking glass). Another distinguished amateur glass decorator, Willem Jacobsz van Heemskerk (1613-92), in Leiden, produced most notably free-flowing calligraphic designs on such wares as bulbous serving bottles and jugs. Among the best-known professional engravers was Willem Mooleyser (active 1685-97), from Rotterdam, who used diamond-point engraving on bowls, flasks, goblets, and Romer.
In stipple engraving, which is a development of diamond-point engraving, a stylus is very gently tapped on the glass to make a design built up of small dots; these dots create areas of light (dense areas of dots) and shade (sparse areas of dots) to create the delicate design. The detail may be so fine that the design will Only be seen clearly when the glass is held to the light. Common designs include portraits and allegorical Subjects. Examples of stipple-engraved glass are rare,
as the technique is slow, extremely difficult, and requires great skill and patience.
As with diamond-point engraving, the most notable designs were produced by glass decorators from the Low Countries. Visscher introduced the technique to The Netherlands c.1621, but perhaps the best-known exponent was Frans Greenwood (1680-1761), an amateur glass decorator in Dordrecht who employed the technique exclusively from c.1722. He incorporated floral and fruit motifs and also copied designs from contemporary mezzotints and paintings. One of his followers was David Wolff (1732-98),
), a painter who
produced his own designs and portraits. Some of Wolff’s pieces are signed and his style inspired other artists towards the end of the century; such pieces are commonly known as “Wolff” glass. Another follower of Greenwood was the painter and engraver Aert Schouman ( 1710-92). Greenwood, Wolff, and Schouman all mainly worked on glass thought to have been made in the factories around Newcastle-upon-Tyne in northern England, which made a soft glass that was better suited to the stippling technique than the more brittle soda glass.
WHEEL ENGRAVING
In wheel engraving, a mechanical wheel fed with an abrasive paste (typically a mix of oil and emery) is used
cut a design onto a glass surface. The technique, which has been used since Roman times, is best suited
thick-walled pieces, because the depth of the cut is an essential part of the design. The modern technique was probably developed between c.1590 and 1605, at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph 11 in Prague, by the gem engraver Caspar Lehman 15-0-1622), who engraved plaques and beakers with portraits and allegorical subjects.
In Bohemia a new type of glass known as “lime” glass, in which chalk lime carbonate was added to the batch to give a strong, colourless crystal suitable for deep engraving, was developed c.1683. At about the same time water power was introduced to drive the wheels, and this also enabled deeper cutting. Especially notable is the work of Dominik Biemann (1800 1857), whose training at the Prague Academy of Drawing is reflected in his fine engraved portraits on beakers and medallions. Of particular note are the Baroque pokals lidded goblets) decorated with Hochschnitt (”high cut”) engraving by the Silesian Friedrich Winter (d.C. 17 12). One of Lehman’s pupils was Georg Schwanhardt the Elder 1601-70), who left Prague for Nuremberg where he established a workshop and founded a dynasty of skilled engravers, including his son Heinrich (1624l
The technique was further developed in the 19th century, as Bohemian craftsmen pioneered a process whereby glass was overlaid with a layer of glass in a different colour and then wheel engraved to show the design in the colour of the first laver. Two lavers of glass were standard, but sophisticated pieces were composed of up to four layers. Such pieces demanded great expertise, as each coloured layer cooled at a different rate, and with each additional colour the risk of cracking increased. Common decoration included forest and hunting scenes, rural views, and castles. However, most sought after are special commissions such as portraits of famous people, battle scenes, and important buildings. Highly skilled Bohemian craftsmen travelled across Europe, so many pieces of this type were produced in various countries.
Towards the end of the 19th century some fine wheel-engraved pieces with Hochschnitt and Tiefschnitt (incised or intaglio) decoration were designed by J. & L. Lobmeyr (est. 1823) in Vienna. The firm produced copies of 18th-century designs and worked in Classical and contemporary styles. Leading engravers who worked for Lobmeyr included Karl Pietsch ( 1826-83), Peter Eisert ( 1828-94), and Franz Ullmann (1846-1921 ).
Engraved glass was also produced in Sweden. In the 20th century some outstanding pieces were made at the Orrefors factory (est. 1898) in Orrefors, in the Sul Aland region. In 1916 Simon Gate ( 1883-1945) was brought in as a chief designer, and he was joined the following year by Edvard Hald (1883-1980). Gate’s designs typically feature elegant Neo-classical figures,
while Hald’s figures are more caricatured and are mostly shallow engraved. Between 1928 and 1941 Vicke Lindstrand ( 1904-83) also worked for Orrefors, producing stylish and elegant designs.
Diamond-point and stipple engraving
• CONDITION diamond-point engraving should be shallow, with ragged, slightly broken lines, minor damage will not greatly affect value of early pieces
• BEWARE copies were decorated by
enthusiastic
amateurs in the I 9th century; when dated there is no Confusion, but undated older glasses can be misleading
Marks
Diamond-point pieces may he signed on the foot or in the design
Wheel engraving
• TYPES OF GLASS 19th-century Bohemian coloured glass Was a popular base; this glass should feel heavy
• DECORATION late 18th-century pieces feature formal designs; heavy, ornate engraving is typical; high-quality pieces have elaborately cut, ornate feet

Longcase clocks
The weight-driven longcase clock, regulated by a pendulum, was introduced c.1660. The long case may have developed as protection for the pendulum and weights – they hung below the movement, which was held with the dial in a hood. Cases were mostly made by cabinet-makers and so reflect the style of contemporary furniture. Longcases are especially linked with Britain, but fine versions were also made in continental Europe and in the USA, where they are known as “tallcases”.
EARLY BRITISH LONGCASES
The earliest British longcases, made from the 1660s mainly in London, had cases of ebony-veneered oak with architectural pediment tops, but walnut-veneered clocks, typically with flat or crested tops and Baroque twist columns on the hood, were fashionable toward the end of the 17th century. The square brass dial had a narrow, applied and silvered chapter ring, applied spandrels of cherubs’ heads, scrolls, or foliage, a roughened or matted brass centre, and heat-treated, durable, blued-steel hands; most examples also had a seconds dial. Perhaps the leading clockmaker of this period was Thomas Tompion (1639-1713).
Marquetry decoration was very popular on the best longcases from the 1680s to c.1710. Before the 1690s this usually consisted of panels of birds and flowers, or geometric patterns, or parquetry, on the trunk and base. Later examples are decorated all over with elaborate designs of arabesques, scrolls, flowers, birds, and figures. Another common feature of late 17th-century longcases k the lenticle: a small, oval, glass window in the trunk
door, revealing the pendulum. With the fashion for larger rooms in the early 18th century, very tall longcases –up to 2.5m ( 8ft 2m) in height – were popular. Classical hood columns that were influenced by contemporary architecture replaced Baroque twists. Dials increasingly became larger and c.1715 the arched or break-arch dial was introduced.
Japanned decoration reflected the European interest in Chinese and Japanese art from c.1700 to the 1770s. Japanning was a European version of the costly, time-consuming process of lacquering. Japanning – usually black and green but occasionally red, yellow, blue, or cream – was painted all over the case on a layer of gesso; gilt chinoiserie designs were then added to the ground.
DUTCH LONGCASES
Longcase clocks were produced in the Netherlands from c. 1670 to the end of the 18th century. Although in many ways they resemble contemporary British clocks, some features are distinctively Dutch. These include the bombe base, sometimes with projecting scrolls; C and S scrolls at the top and bottom of the trunk door; a cast-metal Ienticle surround; large paw
or ball feet; and gilded figural finials. Cases were typically veneered in walnut, with ebony or light-coloured wood stringing or marquetry decoration. Musical work and automata in the dial arch were common features.
The earliest dials were square and had narrow, sometimes skeletonized, chapter rings. Around 1715-20 the break-arch dial came into general use the addition of the arch allowed more
elements to be displayed, such as the maker’s name, a strike/silent lever, the phases of the moon, or even automata. After c1800 the minutes were numbered only every 15.
LATER BRITISH AND AMERICAN LONGCASES In the 18th century high-quality longcase clocks were produced in English cities outside London and in Scotland, especially in Bristol, Oxford, Liverpool, and Edinburgh. From c.1750 the majority of fashionable London makers used mahogany for cases, while oak was popular elsewhere in Britain; makers in the USA, where the industry was well established on the eastern seaboard, preferred indigenous woods such as maple and cherry, although mahogany was also used. London cases of this period typically feature an elaborate pagoda top, two or three brass ball-and-spire finials, and sometimes quarter columns at the corners of the trunk and base, with decorative brass stop-fluting.
The arched brass dial with applied chapter ring and spandrels remained popular and some dials from the 1770s also featured a subsidiary calendar dial, instead of
an aperture. Engraved one-piece brass or silvered-brass dials appeared between 1750 and 1770. Iron dials,
painted with floral motifs, portraits, or mythological and allegorical figures, were introduced in the 1770s and used extensively on British provincial longcases and in the USA, where supplies of brass were limited.
In the Victorian period longcases suffered a decline in quality: painted dials, broad, flimsily constructed cases, and mass-produced movements were common. Novelty and bracket clocks were more popular than longcases, although longcase regulators remained in fashion.
FRENCH LONGCASES
Weight-driven longcases were never made on a large scale in France. More popular at the beginning of the 18th century was the pendule stir socle, a spring-driven bracket clock on a matching tall pedestal or plinth. Cases were made by such leading French cabinet-makers as Andre-Charles BOUlle (1642-1732). Examples by Boulle are typically surmounted by a gilt-bronze figure. In the mid-18th century the best French makers produced a type of longcase which, although not a true regulator or precision clock, was known as a it regulateur. With its outward-curving, bombe trunk, it was very different in style from British longcase clocks. Cases were finely veneered in walnut or rosewood, with rich ormolu mounts and details in mahogany, sycamore, tulipwood, and olivewood.
Production of the pendule stir socle and the regulateur was confined mainly to Paris, but other major centres of clockmaking in the 18th and 19th centuries included the Jura region and the Franche-Comte, the latter renowned for its Comtoise longcases. Most late Comtoise clocks
featured an elaborate pressed-brass pendulum, visible through a teardrop-shaped, glazed trunk section where the case was at its most bulbous; these pendulums were matched by elaborate pressed-brass dial frames.
• WOODS Britain: ebony-veneered oak was used in 1660s, walnut and olivewood veneers in 1670; walnut-veneered cases were used c.1715; mahogany first appeared in 1720s and by c.1750 had largely supplanted walnut, oak remained popular in the provinces in the 1 8th century; USA: indigenous woods Such as cherry and maple gave a distinctive style; some mahogany was also used
• DIALS square dials were typical until c.1715; thereafter the break-arch dial, often featuring a rolling moon or the maker’s name, was popular; silvered dials appeared c.1760, white dials c. 1770, circular dials c.1800; painted metal dials are typical on American pieces
• CASES earliest British cases are in simple architectural style; after 1670s marquetry decoration was used, also on Dutch clocks; lacquer was used in the Netherlands mid- to late 17th century and was popular in Britain c.1720-70s; chinoiserie designs were very popular
• MARRIAGES dials and movements -,veto often removed from one case and placed in another: look for a pendulum that appears too large for its case, a dial that does not fit the hood, or any parts that are not original
• CUT-DOWNS longcases that have been shortened are known as “cut-downs”; peg holes will be visible if feet have been removed; outline of removed cresting or finials may be visible; proportions may look awkward

Clocks
Humankind has always been able to follow the passage of time through observing the sun, moon, and stars. They saw the seasons come and go and noted the phases of the tides of the sea. The regularity of these was recognised thousands of years ago and calculations of time were based upon them.
Humankind started from those phenomenon that were most readily apparent: the month, the year, and the rhythm of day and night. The month is based on the waxing and waning of the moon, and the year and day and night on the rising and setting of the sun. Other astronomical observation are also useful for measuring time.
Hence the ancient Egyptians made a link between the annual flooding of the Nile and the rise of the brightest star, Sirius. We still make wide use of units of time that resulted from these observations. The division of the year into twelve months is due to the prior existence of twelve star signs.
The Egyptian year was 360 days because a circle was divided into 360 degrees. The Egyptians had to add five days on to each year to make it fit. Even the division of the day into 24 hours has its roots in antiquity and has held firm since ancient times.
The only attempt to decimalise time happened during the French Revolution. Experts have failed in their attempts to develop a better system.
The western calendar is determined by time and the sun but this is not true of the entire world. The Islamic world has a moon calendar.
Mechanical clocks, invented in the late 13th century, and watches, first made at the end of the 16th century, are among the most fascinating of antiques. This is in no small part due to the numerous innovations and improvements introduced to their mechanisms for keeping accurate time, particularly since the 17th century. Their attraction, like that of related instruments such as barometers (for recording atmospheric pressure), thus resides to a large extent in our enduring appreciation of technological ingenuity, although on a more fundamental level it also stems from the near-universal preoccupation with the passing and recording of time. However, clocks and watches also have tremendous decorative appeal; for example, many pocket watches and wristwatches are sought after as much as for the qualities of their design as for the accuracy of their time-keeping. Similarly, most types of clock – including wall, longcase, bracket, and carriage, to name a few – display the skills not only of the clockmaker, but also of the cabinet-maker, polisher, engraver, brass caster, and dial painter. Such timepieces can therefore be appreciated in much the same way as a piece of furniture, or even a painting. Indeed, some of the more elaborate examples have been described as mechanical pictures.
Measuring time
The attraction of clocks lies in the combination of mechanical and aesthetic form. In our current age we are almost always aware of the precise time and the radio news is generally broadcast precisely on the hour. Because we take the measurement of time for granted it is probably difficult for us to understand its importance.
Well-to-do families by the late nineteenth century probably had a clock in every room in the house and each adult probably had a pocket watch. Before the railways made national time a necessity, every clock was adjusted to local time.
The clocks and watches were mainly set by the local church clock, which was in turn set according to a sun dial.
Measurement of time with a mechanical clock as we know them is relatively recent but there were forerunners of our clocks. The best-known is the sun dial that was probably discovered by the Sumerians who also observed the sun, moon, and stars, just like the ancient Egyptians.
The simplest sun dial is a stick placed in the ground. They also discovered that a sun dial can only provide accurate time when it is known precisely when the sun is due south.
From this followed the discovery that the position of the shadow depended on the position of the sun, which varied at different times of the year. In about 1000 BC the Chinese discovered that it is better to place the indicating arm of a sun dial at an angle and at right angles to the plane representing the supposed daily travel of the sun around the earth.
In reality the indicator is positioned parallel to the earth’s axis. Although small errors can occur, these discoveries made the sun dial a very reliable means of measuring time.
This meant that seafarers needed to take account of the place where they were with their sun instrument. The sextant developed gradually into a complex instrument that is still widely used to this day throughout the world. A water clock was used in ancient Mesopotamia to measure time. A container was specially constructed so that the water it held ran out slowly. A scale on this container (or the one into which the water flowed) indicated how much time had passed. It was later realised this could be indicated by means of a pointer and also that the flow of water could be used to power a mechanism.
The hourglass filled with sand is based on the same principle. It may seem strange but the first hourglasses were not made until the fifteenth century. Only then had glassblowing reached such a level in which the hourglass could be accurately made.
The sun dial was the most reliable timepiece for a very long time and the arrival of mechanical timepieces did not instantly make them redundant, since the mechanical clocks were far from accurate. Because the angle of the earth’s axis with the sun varies during the year, sun dials are also not always precisely correct. Hence a mechanism was needed that was entirely independent of the apparent movement of the sun, leading to clock mechanism.
The history of clocks runs through a never-ending series of improvements in order to sub-divide time into increasingly uniform units. All clocks rely upon the creation of a motion that is constant. Considerable effort was required to reach this situation.
Mechanical clocks
It is unknown when the first mechanical clocks were made but it is certain that clocks were being made in fourteenth century Europe. The first clocks probably came from northern Italy.
These were clocks in churches and cloisters that were driven by weights. In cloisters they were used to indicate the time for prayer. The word clock is derived from early German and Dutch klocke which actually meant bell that was derived from the French word for bell which is cloche.
This indicated the bell sounded by monks (even in the middle of the night) to call them to mass. Wall-mounted and table clocks appeared some time after this in the homes of the wealthiest persons.
The conversion of motion into uniform periods of time was not very precise in these early clocks which had a primitive balance wheel (English clocks) or foliot (Continental clocks) that was a forerunner of the later pendulum. Church clocks were set and adjusted by means of a sun dial and the striking of the church clock was used to adjust clocks in the home.
The first clock-makers travelled around Europe but as demand increased they established themselves in fixed places, choosing towns such as Nuremberg and Augsburg where they established guilds mid-way through the sixteenth century. The German table clock became more common property with the rise in living standards and many such sixteenth century clocks have survived.
Christiaan Huygens and his inventions
The Dutchman Christiaan Huygens made a discovery that was of tremendous importance for the further development of timepieces. Born in The Hague on 14 April 1629 into a family of five children, he received a good education.
His father was the poet Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687). This influential and talented figure corresponded with people such as Descartes, Mersenne, and Diodati (a friend of Galileo Galilei).
His son Christiaan was known principally as a mathematician, physicist, and astronomer.
In the area of physics he made his name with his studies of the motion of a pendulum and in theories regarding light waves. He also constructed a telescope with an improved lens. This enabled him to discover Saturn’s ring. His invention of the pendulum was of considerable importance for clocks. Between 1655 and 1660 Huygens devoted his time to seeking an accurate means of determining time. He came upon the idea of using a pendulum in 1656 and patented his idea for a pendulum clock in 1657.
This clock was then made by Samuel Coster, of The Hague. By comparison with other clocks of the age, the accuracy of Huygen’s clock was astonishing. This was of importance both for astronomy and physics.
Huygens also wanted to create a clock which would enable seafarer’s to determine their longitude. A pendulum was of no use on board ship but he eventually solved this with a balance wheel with clockwork driven by a spring. His invention is utilised in the spiral spring of a pocket watch.
The theory of the pendulum was finally described by Huygen’s in his Horologium oscillatorium of 1673. In this important book he showed mathematically that the oscillation time of a swinging weight — which has arc-form strips on either side of the suspension point against which the thread comes if it deviates beyond this point — is independent of the maximum swing of the pendulum. In this case the weight no longer describes a segment of a circle but a cycloidal motion. He also demonstrated the relationship between the length of the pendulum and duration of the swing and also the centrifugal force when a pendulum describes a circular path. Huygen’s discovery of the pendulum clock was a true milestone in the development of clocks. With this discovery he succeeded in overcoming the irregular frequency of the balance escapement. The regular swing of the pendulum proved to be an ideal regulator for clock mechanisms. Sufficiently accurate for a minute hand to be added to clocks.
The invention of the balance wheel spring mechanism is ascribed to both Huygens and the Englishman Dr. Robert Hooke, a physics and chemistry teacher at Gresham College. He claimed the invention of the mechanism for watches in 1658. A balance is a combination of a mass with a spring that returns the mass to its original position when it moves. Both men used this discovery to improve the accuracy of portable timepieces.
The first pendulum clocks
Dutch makers naturally made use of Huygens’ discovery of the pendulum. They were produced in many forms: Friesian longcase and hanging clocks, Amsterdam longcase clocks, Zaandaam clocks, and Friesian, Gronginen, and Drenthe bracket clocks.
Huygens patented his invention and the first maker to produce a pendulum clock under licence to his design was Salomon Hendrikszoon Coster. This clock did not have a long pendulum as in Huygens’ design though but a short one.
The mechanism was contained in a small case that became known as a Hague clock. It is a type that can be still seen in many English, French, and Dutch table clocks. Not all Hague clocks have pendulums though. Earlier types have a sprung cylinder or weight.
The knowledge of pendulums was taken to Britain by Ahasuerus Fromanteel, a London maker who was apprenticed
LBottom left: Friesian longcase clock from Grouw, made by D.J. Tosma in 1770. The clock not only gives time to the second but also the date, day of the week, month, and moon phase. The mechanism also plays six tunes, has 14 bells and 28 hammers. From the times of water-powered clocks, all manner of mechanisms have been incorporated with clocks.
escapement. Countless variations of this invention have been developed in the following three centuries.
to Coster. Huygens himself took the knowledge to France. Shortly after his patent was granted, Huygens visited Paris where he allowed several makers to produce table clocks with a pendulum mechanism. It was neither the Dutch or French clock industry though that saw the advantages of Huygens’ invention but the British who used it extensively. This formed the foundation for the leading role English clocks were later to take.
An Englishman also found a way of improving Huygen’s invention. One problem of his design was the inertia created for the pendulum mechanism each time the escapement wheel was released. This problem was solved in about 1670 by the Englishman William Clement who invented the anchor
The external form of the clock
After the invention of the pendulum mechanism, the cases of most clocks changed from metal to wood. The outward appearance of clocks in the two most important clockmaking countries of England and France went in different directions. A French clockmaker ordered mechanisms in standard sizes which he then incorporated into the case that he built. A consequence of this was that clock cases in France always ran consistent with the major developments of style.
Because the whole process was kept in the hands of the clock-maker in England, the emphasis was far more on the mechanism. For this reason, English clocks tend to run about twenty-five years behind the development of styles. This changed at the end of the eighteenth century through the influence of the great designers such as Adam, Chippendale, Hepplewhite, and Sheraton.
There are other differences between French and English clocks. The French produced large numbers of table and bracket clocks while the English preferred hand-made clocks and watches.
The face of English clocks remained fairly rectangular while from 1715 onwards the French stuck to round ones.
A MARITIME CHRONOMETER
At the start of the eighteenth century the British government was aware of the importance of accurately determining position at sea and passed the Longitude Act of 1714 promising a prize of 20,000 GBP to the person who developed a means of determining longitude. The Act required accuracy to with half a degree of longitude. A deviation of two-thirds would be rewarded with £15,000, and one degree with £10,000.
The self-taught horologist John Harrison recognised that accurately knowing the time was the secret and he finally developed a chronometer in 1761 that achieved this but had to battle with the government until 1773, when he was 80 years old, to get his money. In order to achieve this precise timekeeping was required. With the necessity of building precise clocks for maritime use, makers at the end of the seventeenth century were able to make clocks that were reasonably accurate. The English in particular made great strives in the early eighteenth century to make ever more accurate clocks.
The French though were not far behind and by 1750 had caught up with the English.
The most famous French maker is undoubtedly Abraham-Louis Breguet but the English efforts had created the basis of their success.
In the mid nineteenth century, the best clock and watch makers were based in London, with names such as East, Fromanteel, Graham, Knibb, Quare, and Tompion.
At this high-point though there was also a threat for this labour intensive craft.
From the mid nineteenth century both English and French makers faced stiff competition from cheaper mass produced products from Germany, the United States, and Switzerland.
Bottom right: Walnut longcase clock by Joan klock, Amsterdam, made between 1680-1700. OIL AND FIRE CLOCKS
Burning substances in order to measure time is a very old principle.
The simplest form is the marked candle which indicates the passage of time as the candle burns down. Central European tin founders made lots of calibrated
146
oil clocks with transparent or partially transparent oil tanks. A scale indicates the burning time of the oil. Such oil clocks served simultaneously as night-lights and simple timepieces but they should not be confused with clocks which had night-lights to illuminate their dials.
Types of clocks
LANTERN CLOCKS
Lantern clocks are among the earliest examples of balance wheel or foliot escapement. From the fourteenth through to the sixteenth century, the early lantern clocks were housed in Gothic style metal cases.
All manner of wall mounted clocks were developed from these simple lantern clocks. Wood and ceramics were also used to make the clock case and the mechanisms also varied. Most were spring or weight driven from the seventeenth century.
LONGCASE CLOCKS
Soon after the development of the pendulum clock the English introduced the longcase clock, designed to protect the pendulum. The first longcase clocks had short pendulums but following the development of the anchor escapement they were able to use longer, second-beating pendulums.
Early longcase clocks were designed along classical lines often incorporating a tympanum and Corinthian capitals. This was quickly reduced to two pilasters that were sometimes turned. Early clocks had opening upper cases for winding the clock but as the clocks became taller after 1710 they had a lower door for this purpose. French makers surpassed the English longcase clocks after 1730. The innate conservatism of the English makers held them back.
The adoption of the pendulum in Britain quickly led to the development of bracket clocks as well as longcase clocks.
The cases were made of wood with ebony, walnut, mahogany, and other veneers. Only a few clocks had inlay work but painted examples are more common. Most clocks had eight-day mechanisms. The term ‘bracket clock’ is derived from the wall-mounting bracket that some of these clocks had even though most were made so they could stand on furniture. Most English bracket clocks that found their way abroad were made in London. Provincial clocks were largely for local sale.
MANTELCLOCKS
Mantel clocks are similar to bracket clocks but usually both smaller and with less depth. The first examples dating from around 1750-1760 were made in France. English mantel clocks followed on about ten years later.
The first French mantel clocks were developed from French Regency bracket clocks, coming into being when similar clocks were created in Rococo style without a bracket. It was commonplace to set these clocks on a mantelpiece. It became customary around 1835 to accompany mantel clocks with a pair of matching ornaments. These garniture de cheminee remained popular throughout the nineteenth century. It is easy to distinguish English mantel clocks from French ones. English examples mainly have superb mechanisms and graced studies and libraries.
NOVELTY CLOCKS
It was customary in the seventeenth century to produce novelty clocks with mechanisms that did more than drive the clock itself. The outward appearance of these clocks was of paramount importance and might take any form from a crucifix with Madonna or animals and even slaves.
CARRIAGE CLOCKS
With the improvements in clock technology it was possible by the early sixteenth century to make clocks that could be taken on journeys.
The mechanisms were more precise to allow for the disturbance of motion and the first travelling clocks were like large watches of 70-140 mm (23/4-51/2in) and were known as carriage clocks.
The greatest impulse to the development of portable timepieces was the demand for chronometers that permitted the establishment of longitude. English clock-makers succeeded in creating chronometers that were not affected by the sea’s motion The mechanism was mounted in a rectangular casing with the balance and motion unusually situated at the top of the mechanism instead of the rear. Most of these clocks had metal casings with glazed side panels and a small handle at the top.
WATCHES
When the mainspring was developed around 1500 this quickly led to the invention of the first watch. These small portable clocks were worn on a cord around the neck. The casings were generally of very luxurious and fine style with the main function of these watches being decorative.
Silver, gold, or gilded watches were engraved and from 1630 onwards were also decorated with polychrome enamel. These watches were not very reliable until the development in 1670 of the balance wheel. After this date the watch’s function became more important in its design. Minute hands were added and dials with the hours marked in figures became more prominent.
century pocket-watches were generally devoid of expensive enamel decoration and their metal cases were plain metal that was sometimes embossed or engraved. Enamel’s place was sometimes taken by cheaper painted horn.
The invention by Thomas Mudge in 1755 of the anchor escapement was very important to the development of the watch and made them much more accurate. Although this invention was ignored for almost 80 years it replaced virtually every other type of movement in the period 1830-1850 and has been used in virtually every mechanical watch mechanism since.
Abraham-Louis Breguet is regarded as the spiritual father of the modern watch with his invention of a mechanism that counteracts the detrimental effect on accuracy of wearing of a watch.
UNUSUAL MECHANISMS
Clockwork can of course be used to drive other mechanisms such as striking or chiming mechanisms to signal the hour and parts of the hour. Some clocks have chiming mechanisms that can play one or more pieces of music. Alarm clocks also have a striking mechanism of course and other functions found include indication of the date and the phases of the moon. Some clockwork mechanisms even have a solely astronomical function, incorporating a complete planetarium and universe.
WRIST WATCHES
Wrist watches date from around 1865 when the first ladies’ bracelets incorporating a watch were made. Almost no men’s watches were made before World War I and the rise of the wrist watch coincided with Switzerland gaining a leading position as watch and clock-makers.
ELECTRIC CLOCKS
Alexander Bain is regarded as the person who invented electric clocks. He acquired a patent in Britain in 1841 that incorporates virtually all the principles on which subsequent electric clocks were based.
One of these is the use of electromagnets to operate clocks. Many electric clocks still use the ever reliable pendulum. Subsequent electric clocks incorporated a means of winding up a spring.
Mass production
DThe Americans were the first to take the steps necessary to mass produce clocks. A flood of inexpensive clocks were exported to Europe in the 1840s, resulting in the demise of the English clock-makers. In continental Europe though makers managed to survive in southern Germany and Switzerland by switching to mass production.
The Swiss led the watch industry until the 1960s when the Japanese flooded the world market with cheap watches.
IMPORTANT EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF CLOCKS
3000 BC: first sundial in Sumaria
1300 BC: first reports of water driven timepieces in Egypt
1500: first wheel escapement mechanisms. The first town halls and churches were equipped with clocks that struck the hour.
1300-1350: Metal clocks become increasingly in vogue in prosperous homes.
1425: first modern sundial with upright parallel to the earth’s, axis (Germany). 1450: first spring driven clocks originating from Flanders and/or Burgundy.
I 500:Details such as fusees, striking mechanisms, and porticos were in wide use
1500-1550: Development in Nuremberg of clock mechanisms with the possible invention of features such as asymmetric spinning ’spoons’ to correct inertia. 1657-1658: discovery of the pendulum by Christiaan Huygens
1670: invention of the anchor escapement by William Clement.
1755: development of the balance wheel by Thomas Mudge
1800: Abraham-Louis Breguet develops a number of improvements for watches. 1841: Alexander Bain is awarded a patent for an electric clock mechanism.

Classicism, Empire, and Biedermeier
England
English furniture makers between the sixteenth and eighteenth century adopted both the ornamentation and forms of continental furniture, although with a British tendency towards modesty and simplicity. There are three main periods of English furniture. The first is the Elizabethan era in which solid oak dominates. This lasted into the reign of the Stuarts. At this time Dutch furniture, which had much in common with the character of the English pieces, was imported together with luxury Flemish and French furniture.
The first new era of a distinctive English style was that of William and Mary when walnut was widely used.
The form of chairs brought over from the Dutch republic were adapted. The fretwork backs were raised in height and given scrolls. Fabric upholstery was replaced with harder woven seats and chair backs. Other types of chairs also evolved from this original type. A bench with a back was also created (a settee), a two-seated bench (double stool), and small sofa, known as a lover’s seat. These types were made well into the eighteenth century.
Oak furniture was often covered with walnut or other veneers and decorated with inlays. The Dutch example of tulips, other flowers, and birds was also adopted.
Both the cabinet and secretaire on turned legs were important pieces of furniture, which were fitted with drawers. Both marquetry and lacquer along the Dutch lines were popular between 1680 and 1720. Things continued in this vein until 1750.
The most important piece of furniture though was the chest of drawers, made in the form of a low or taller commode.
The wide and curved cabriole leg was very popular during the reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714) but was being replaced by 1710 with the bull and claw foot. The ubiquitous English Windsor chairs has neither of these characteristics.
THOMAS CHIPPENDALE
English furniture making was significantly altered in 1754 by Thomas Chippendale. He preferred to work in mahogany and had taste preferences drawn from French and Asian examples. But he was also inspired by native English Gothic. He brought together Rococo shells for instance with late Gothic elements.
Chippendale produced a number of types of table including reading tables, bookcases closed at the bottom and enclosed with glazed doors above, card tables, glazed dressers with a taller central section, three-part cabinets, a small table on bowed legs, a round folding table, and bureaux or writing commodes.
His commodes shared a curved front with those of France. But his greatest love was probably for chairs. Following on from his Chinese and Gothic influences he produced chairs with square legs and the merest hint of decoration. All his creativity went into the decoration of the backs of his chairs.
The curved central `splat’ of the back was fretcut and carved in the form of woven leaves and flowers, with curls, scrolls, `ribbons’, and loops.
ROBERT ADAM
Robert Adam gained great fame in the subsequent stage of English furniture design. Adam used Classicism in a very decorative way.
His semi-oval commodes have their front decorated with painting and extremely fine marquetry. The painting took the form of banding, garlands and laurel wreaths, mounted trophies, oval forms, urns, and columns.
Robert Adam’s storage furniture with its geometrical lines was made solely using light-coloured timber. This was mainly sandalwood. The top leaf and stringers of tables were decorated with either carved or burnt in patterns. These too utilised simple geometric motifs.
SHERATON AND HEPPLEWHITE
Thomas Sheraton and George Hepplewhite differed from Adam. Both made different types of cabinets but instead of using carving they preferred to see the natural figure of the grain of the wood.
Both Sheraton and Hepplewhite had a hand in the development of several types of table and they also made bureaux with cylinder locks, dressing tables, tables for placing against a wall, and bedside tables.
In common with Robert Adam they gave considerable attention to the backs of the chairs they made. Sheraton made the simpler type of chair, using sober, fitted for the purpose, and geometric designs. After 30 years as a furniture maker he reintroduced the use of rush seats for his chairs.
Hepplewhite in turn introduced the Prince of Wales feathers or ears of corn designs into the oval framing of his chair backs. More pointed oval forms and heart shape panels were also used by Hepplewhite.
ENGLISH REGENCY
The great flourishing of English furniture making drew to a close at the end of the eighteenth century. The English Regency period is considered by some as a mere variant of the French Empire style. It was not again until the 1860’s that English furniture once more emerged with fresh ideas.
France — Louis XVI and Empire
A new style arose in France out of the Louis XVI style known as Empire. It was directly derived from the Napoleonic ideal of a Roman Empire.
French ebenistes were not greatly inspired by theexamples from classical antiquity given by wealth of treasures uncovered by excavations.
Fortunately it was an era of artists with vivid imaginations and this included the architects P. Fontaines and Christian Percier who drew on the classical past for their designs for interiors, covering walls with carpet or colourful silk. Classical
Early 19th century mahogany half-moon table.Antiquity was glorified at this time so that artistic concepts of these idealistic days gained a romantic heroic overtones. This expressed itself through an almost pathetic level of ostentation, which was revealed in interior furnishings.
It is striking how similarly Empire furnishings are worked, making them readily distinguishable and rather uniform in appearance.
The furnishings were uncluttered and derived their form from architecture. The solid looking furnishings are strongly symmetrical with straight lines.
The Empire style also expressed itself in the design of furniture for the rooms. Important elements for Empire furniture are the cornices, pilasters, and columns
The decorative mouldings of acanthus stems, dolphins, egg and tongue mouldings, nymphs, laurel wreaths, lions, palmettos, sphinxes (which referred to Napoleon’s Nile expedition), urns, and swans created their own identity.
Empire style tables were fairly lavishly made for a range of purposes. Many four-legged tables served as writing desks but there were also bureaux with shutters and desks with pedestals.
Ordinary tables were round as was the case in ancient Greece and Rome. But tables were also made in various polygonal forms. Initially the table top was borne by a carved figure but this was later replaced by a plain columns with inlay and bronze capitals The wash stand also evolved.
A separate leaf was added for a water jug and the wash basin was often supported by a swan. The sliding drawer of the dressing table was often fitted with a mirror for hair styling.
Secretaires were an enclosed but compact piece of furniture. Commodes were simples and without curves, with two drawers or two doors. A new item in the bedroom was a large swivel cheval glass mirror or psyche set in a frame on a stand. Considerable attention was given during the Empire period to the design of beds. Although these no longer had canopies they still remained pretentious. Furniture makers happily used a boat form for beds, known as lit de bateau. Matching style bedside cabinets and night cabinets with decorated fronts were also made for such beds.
Chairs and other seating from the Empire period is characterised by an emphasis on woodworking skills and heavy construction.
At first these had round turned legs but later these stood on arched sabre legs. Interiors were also furnished with dumb waiters, plus flower and sewing tables and a bird cage. The strong love of music also meant that pianos were increasingly found that were mainly imported from London and Vienna.
Germany
German furniture making reached a crescendo in style shortly after the French Revolution. It is entirely unfair to compare the German style of this period with the style of Louis XVI.
New directions in art in Germany generally arose from philosophers rather than practitioners. The Louis XVI style had reached Germany by 1760 by way of the Rhineland. German copies lack the same finesse of the French originals and did not fully implement the style.
Furthermore Baroque influences still endured in Germany and affected this new style import.
Furniture from the area around Liege and Achen was much closer to the French examples. Further north in Germany, along the North Sea coast and around Lubeck, the Louis XVI style was diluted by traditional Scandinavian styles.
The heavy in scale white furniture from this region was influenced by the simple beauty of furniture from Sweden and Denmark. German furniture makers were increasingly influenced as the years passed by their English compatriots. Wide use was made in Berlin and Hamburg and other major cities of veneer.
In addition to the use of native wood from cherry, conifers, walnut, and pear, mahogany was imported on a greater scale. Eventually the native timbers were forced to yield to the imports. Types
of furniture dating back to the time of Queen Anne were copied from Britain, such as double commodes, sawing and dressing tables, and bureaux.
These were later followed by bookcases and glazed-fronted cabinets. English style tended to rule until the emergence of Biedermeier.
Display cabinets though were mainly inspired along French lines, largely due to David Roentgen. These pieces were largely made of course for the palaces and castles of the ruling German princes. These were decorated with inlays of animals, birds, and floral still life designs at Roentgen’s instigation.
After some time these designs were supplemented with allegorical scenes and chinoiserie along Dutch lines. The sober way in which ordinary German folk furnished their homes stood in stark contrast with the overwhelmingly ornate interiors of the palaces.
It is impossible to over-emphasize the longevity of the influence of Baroque throughout the whole of Germany. We have seen how English style influenced the north. In Prussian Berlin Karl Friedrich Schinkel was open to both high classical and emancipated popular classical examples. In the south, in Munich, Leo von Klenze was rather more inspired by French style. Vienna in Austria was another matter though. Furniture makers there combined decorative tastes with comfort.
GERMAN BIEDERMEIER
The first tendency towards more approachable furniture for the ‘ordinary’ home could be seen in the work of Klenze of Munich and these were popular with the generations leading up to the revolutionary year of 1848.
Biedermeier style became popular in the German-speaking countries of Germany, Biedermeier style was a counter to the rigid and pathetic Empire. It was inspired by furniture design that was popular with ordinary people around 1800.
The ordinary citizen preferred more approachable furniture with rounded corners and lightly curved surfaces, circles, ovals, and curved broad lines. The popular notion of comfort meant for instance wide sofas and divans. Sets of tables and chairs were given pride of place in the ‘ordinary’ home. Little use was made of bronze encrusted decoration or fittings in Biedermeier furniture. This was restricted to small turnkeys, horns of plenty, and key escutcheons.
In Germany, as in England, bookcases consisted of three parts.
Wardrobes, linen cupboards, and china cabinets had pilasters at their corners and otherwise were entirely glazed. secretaires managed to stay in existence during the Biedermeier period but their style varied from area to area.
The tops of these secretaires were sometimes reminiscent of a cathedral. The inside of a secretaire was subdivided along architectural lines with small drawers, mirrors, and small columns. It is fun to find all the secret cavities.
The most widely used woods were native elements. beech, ash, cherry, and pear plus ‘exotic’ mahogany. Most secretaires were decorated with paintings or veneer.
Furniture was often covered in floral cretonne with intensely coloured roses or with cotton rep. The walls were hung with plain wallpaper or with paper with floral or vine patterns. This made the rooms look busy even before the many items of furniture were added. These included sewing tables, dumb waiters for books and china, and wastepaper baskets.

Bow and Longton Hall
British 18th-century porcelain factories followed their own paths and often aimed their products at very different markets. The proprietors of Bow, to the east of London, responded to the metropolitan demand for Oriental porcelain, which it closely imitated. Longton Hall, in rural Staffordshire, was far removed from the changing fashions of London and produced very individual porcelain with a charm of its own.
Meissen figures, although in comparison with the elegance and sophistication of Chelsea figures, those produced by the Staffordshire workmen hired by Bow were clumsy – as typified by the work of the “Muses Modeller”, an unknown sculptor, whose work, however,
has a distinctive rustic charm. The bright colours on later Bow figures, combined with a strong underglaze blue, resulted in highly decorative ornaments that sold well at the time. The Bow factory remained in production for nearly 30 years but fell victim to an economic recession in the mid-1770s, when figures became unfashionable and the Rococo style that so suited Bow gave way to the Neo-classical taste. The factory closed in 1776.
LONGTON HALL
William Littler (1724-84) founded the Longton Hall factory c.1749 and developed his first porcelain recipe just ust prior to 1750. This porcelain had a thick, semi-opaque white glaze that has earned the nickname “snowman class” for early Longton Hall figures. By c.1752, however, Littler had perfected his formula to produce porcelain that could be moulded quite thinly –ideal for making the forms such as fruit, vegetables, and leaves that dominated Longton Hall’s characteristic, brightly painted dishes, jugs, and tureens. The figures, which are not dissimilar from those of Bow and Derby, show the influence of Meissen. The variable quality of Longton Hall porcelain, coupled with heavy kiln losses, led to the factory’s bankruptcy and closure in 1760. Littler moved to Scotland, where he later opened a new porcelain works at West Pans, near Musselburgh.
BOW
The discovery of Bow’s porcelain recipe resulted from years of experimentation by the potter Edward Heylyn (1695–c.1758) and the artist Thomas Frye (1710-62). They took out their first patent for a porcelain formula c.1744, but Bow porcelain was probably not on sale before 1748. In 1750 the factory was styled “New Canton”, and the influence of China and Japan dominated Bow’s useful wares. Bow porcelain was coarser than hard-paste porcelain and less durable
than that invented a few years later at Worcester, and the burnt animal bones (bone-ash) used as a principal ingredient at Bow created a body that was liable to stain. Competition from rival makers who used
soapstone in their porcelain led Bow to turn its attention to ornamental wares, especially figures. Bow followed the successful example of Chelsea in copying Bow
• BODY soft-paste porcelain containing bone-ash; coarser than true porcelain and liable to stain
• GLAZE soft and slightly blue with a tendency to pool around the base
• DECORATION underglaze, powder-blue ground; blanc-de-Chine sprigged prunes blossom; Kakiemon palette; the “quail” pattern (two quails with rocks and foliage), which became Bow’s most popular design
• FIGURES press-moulded rather than slip-cast, and therefore rather heavy; early figures left in the white, later examples decorated in colourful enamels
Marks
Early Bow is generally unmarked, but after c.1765 this “anchor and dagger” mark was painted in red enamel on colourful pieces that were possibly decorated outside the factory
Longton Hall
• BODY soft-paste porcelain; sometimes, like Chelsea, the body contains “moons” – tiny air bubbles that appear as pale spots against a strong light
• STYLE the factory specialized in colourful jugs, dishes, and tureens in the form of leaves, fruit, and vegetables
• DECORATION Meissen-style flowers are attributed to an artist known as the “trembly rose painter”, although many artists painted in this manner
Marks
No mark was used; pieces marked with two crossed “L”s in blue, formerly attributed to the factory, are now known to come from Littler’s later venture at West Pans

Ti-glazed earthenware was produced in France from at least the beginning of the 16th century when itinerant potters from Italy first introduced the technique. The ware is called “faience”, since much of the early ware resembled maiolica made in Faenza, Italy.
THE 16TH CENTURY
The dominant style for most of the 16th century was Italian; craftsmen from Italy appear to have settled in Lyons (1512), Nevers, Montpellier, and Nimes, and the output of these centres closely reflects the contemporary Italian polychrome maiolica of Urbino, Faenza, and Savona. The Italian istoriato (narrative) style is found on wares made in Lyons and Nevers, while the panelled a quartiery style associated with Faenza is seen on the faience of Nimes and Montpellier. However, in the north of France at Rouen around the middle of the century the work of Masseot Abaquesne (active 1526-59) is more sombre, and the designs show a strong affiliation with the Mannerist work of the Fontainebleau School. Early Rouen was noted for the manufacture of tiles some still extant in chateaux), albarelli (drug jars), saucer dishes, and flat-rimmed dishes.
THE 17TH CENTURY
The first half of the century continued to be dominated by the Italian tradition, but from the mid-17th century a more native French Baroque style developed. Mythological figures after contemporary prints were Popular subjects; drawn in a bold, muscular style in which ochre and blue are often dominant, they are somewhat livelier than their Italian istoriato predecessors. Dishes, which greatly outnumber hollow-wares (except apothecaries’ wares), were typically embellished with heavy foliated borders, usually interrupted with cartouches enclosing diverse subjects. During the second quarter of the century the influence of imported Chinese porcelain is evident, both in decoration and in form, and consequently the “hot” Italian colours declined in favour of blue and white. Nevers was probably the most important centre until the last 20 years of the century and was one of the first French pottery centres to decorate its wares with Chinese motifs. Here the earliest manifestations are garbled versions of the many imported late Ming blueand-white wares. A large proportion of production was painted in cobalt blue, sometimes outlined in manganese brown with figures in the manner of Chinese Transitional porcelain. Alongside the Italianate and Chinese styles, faience with solid-coloured grounds was made, including, most commonly, bleu persan (Persian blue), cobalt, and, more rarely, ochre.
Rouen, close to Paris and the French court, developed as a prominent centre for faience at the end of the 17th century. The Rouen style of the late 17th and early 18th centuries is formal, utilizing intricate motifs resembling ironwork (forronerie) or lacework (lambrequin) but probably owing as much to contemporary Chinese ceramic ornament. The lambrequin rayonnant style, so-called because of its radiating “snowflake” complexity, was copied by many other manufacturers in France, including those in Strasbourg and Moustiers. At its height (c.1695-1725) Rouen combined this style with vessels based on the shapes of silverwares because the French nobility had been ordered to melt down its silver in order to finance the wars of Louis XIV. Faience therefore became a fashionable substitute for silver.
THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES
Between c.1710 and 1720 polychrome wares became fashionable once again. For the next 20 or 30 years bold chinoiseries in high-fired (grand-feu) colours eclipsed the blue-and-white wares. From c.1750 low-fired (petit-feu) enamelled decoration became the focus of the leading faience factories of the day, located in Strasbourg, Niderviller, Luneville, Sceaux, and Marseilles. In an ultimately futile competition with porcelain, these manufacturers decorated their wares with botanical flowers, chinoiseries, and fantastical landscapes in the most delicate brushwork. Forms from the mid-18th century, in keeping with the innate intimacy of the Rococo, were diverse and lively, almost matching porcelain in some instances.
However, in the late 18th century, competition from porcelain and English creamware (cream-coloured earthenware) proved too much for faience manufacturers, and many failed around the turn of the century. Some potteries survived the onslaught from English creamware by manufacturing the same material, known
as faience fine, which although clean and crisp was never as creamy or warm as the English ware. In France, factories such as those in Creil, Pontaux-Choux, and Montereau, some active before the
mid-18th century, made great quantities of faience fine, thus helping to accelerate the decline of faience. Many of these factories decorated their wares with transfer-printing in the style of creamware from the Wedgwood factory (est. 1759) in Burslem, England.
By the mid-19th century Quimper was one of the few surviving faience factories in France, producing wares with simple figural subjects loosely imitative
of I 8th-century Rouen. Gien, active toward the end of the 19th century, appears to have concentrated on the manufacture of wares in revival styles, using printed designs based on classic Italian maiolica. The output of historicized faience was fairly limited as many factories preferred to produce the fashionable styles current in the dying years of the 19th century. The firm of Samson (est. 1845) in Paris made a wide range of good reproductions of faience. Although this factory applied the original marks, it usually put its own monogram alongside.
• BODY Rouen: red; Nevers and Marseilles: buff;
Strasbourg: creamy white; Moustiers: greyish
• GLAZE Strasbourg: thick and creamy white; Moustiers: creamy grey
• PALETTE “hot” colours inspired by Italian maiolica; from c.1625 blue and white inspired by imported Chinese porcelain; high-fired colours: cobalt blue, manganese purple, ochre, yellow, green, and iron red; enamels: from the late 1740s a wide range of colours
• DECORATION Rouen: lainbrequins and arabesques; Nevers: narrative style; Strasbourg: botanical studies; Marseilles: naturalistic flowers, bouillabaisse; Moustiers: potato flowers, fantastic creatures, Classical figures, and festoons
Marks
These were very randomly applied; marks arc usually the initials of the proprietor of the factory; most are in puce, blue, or black; care should be taken since marks of such collectable factories as Strasbourg, Sceaux, Marseilles,
Rouen, Lille, and Nevers have been widely copied on 19th- and 20th-century fakes
Strasbourg: Paul Hannong factory (c.1740-60) Marseilles: Veuve Perrin factory (c.1740-95) Moustiers: Olerys factory (1 738–c.1790) Quimper: Antoine de la Hal (est. 1782)
Quimper: Fougeray factory (est. 1872): copies of 18th-century originals

Antique Mirrors
Although German glassmakers produced convex mirrors from the 15th century, it was not until c.1500 that flat mirror plates were made using the broad-glass technique. This was invented in Venice, and revolutionized mirror production during the 16th and 17th centuries. The technique was later replaced by the plate-glass process first used at the Saint Gobain Glasshouse (est. 1693), in Paris, which allowed the production of larger and more even mirror plates. The Parisian makers enjoyed unchallenged prosperity until the late 18th century when the British Plate Glass Manufactory in London succeeded in manufacturing the large plates, which were so admired.
BAROQUE MIRRORS
Late 17th-century southern European mirrors are usually of rectangular form, with the central plates invariably “bevelled” or chamfered at the edges and contained within mirrored borders; the plates are often engraved or etched with mythological or pastoral scenes. The carved frames, either giltwood or silvered, usually display a Baroque exuberance, with acanthus, putti, masks, and cornucopias. Late 17th-century northern European mirrors were often conceived of as dressing mirrors, designed en suite with matching dressing tables and torcheres (candle stands). Of rectangular form, frequently with convex or cushion-moulded frames and usually crowned by shaped crestings, which was often similarly carved, these late 17th-century mirrors display remarkable inventiveness in their use of materials. The production of larger plates led to the introduction of pier glasses, placed between the window piers, the culmination of which are the mirrors in the Galerie des Glaces at the palace of Versailles. Although Paris’s lead was followed throughout Europe, particularly in Italy, Britain, and Germany, with mirrored borders often enriched with coloured or engraved glass, the plates were almost always divided.
EARLY 18TH-CENTURY MIRRORS
Although French mirror-frames during the Louis XIV (1643-1715) and Regence (1715-23) periods are usually of carved and gilded lime, pine, or oak, enriched with masks, dragons, and serpents, Charles Crescent (1685-1768), the cabinet-maker to the Duc d’Orleans, supplied his patron with vast pier glasses with gilt-bronze frames. These important mirrors, so widely copied in the 19th century, were also produced in Germany and Sweden. However, in the main, German, Swedish, and Danish mirrors made in the first half of the 18th century tended to follow the lead of Paris, although in execution the carving is often slightly flatter.
During the Queen Anne and early Georgian periods a distinctive national style emerged in Britain. Thus, although tall pier glasses with bevelled, divided plates, and mirrored borders, enriched the window-piers of the great aristocratic houses, their frames began to be decorated in gilt-gesso, with finely etched and pounced decoration. This gave way between
c.1725 and 1750 to the fashion for more architectural mirrors in the Palladian style advocated by Lord Burlington (1694-1753) and William Kent (c.1685-1748). These mirrors often display triangular or scrolled, swan-neck pediments, centred by the mask of a Roman god, an acanthus spray, or an armorial cartouche. Although often gilded or painted cream, these mirrors are most frequently of walnut, with gilding usually reserved for the carved architectural mouldings and cresting. In North America mirrors with simple frames topped with arched crests were popular from the 1730s. Carved and gilded openwork shells were often inserted in the crests.
CHIPPENDALE AND ROCOCO MIRRORS
In the 1740s Palladianism gave way to the Rococo style. Inspired by the designs of Nicolas Pineau (1684-1754) in France, Johann Christian Hoppenhaupt (b.1719), in Germany, and Matthias Lock (c.1710-65) in England, the new vocabulary incorporated flowers, acanthus, C-scrolls, and even chinoiserie figures from the 1750s. Even the mirror-plate was decorated, and rare examples survive where the surface was painted in oils with putti and floral garlands. But it was the Chinese who perfected this art with their reverse-painted mirror pictures, which were exported to England from the mid-18thcentury.
The name of Thomas Chippendale (1718-79) is synonymous with the carved giltwood mirrors of the 1750s and 1760s. His designs were influential throughout Europe, particularly in Portugal, and North America, and indeed served as the inspiration for several 19th-century revivals, most importantly those of the 1830s, 1840s, and c.1900.
Rococo “Chippendale” mirrors of the 1750s, as well as those in the early Neo-classical style of the 1760s, are usually of carved and gilded lime or pine, with filigree applied decoration, often of gesso or plaster applied onto wire;
papier-mache examples also survive. This technique, which enables great depth and quality in the detailing but is much more vulnerable, was superseded by gilt-composition, a plaster that is heavier, solid, and cold to the touch, but which could be cast in moulds. Early North American Neo-classical mirrors had narrow mouldings enclosing rectilinear or oval glass, while later examples became heavier. Often the frame was round, with a convex mirror based on patterns by Thomas Sheraton 1851-1806) and George Smith (active c.1786-1828).
DRESSING AND CHEVAL MIRRORS
It was not until the 17th century that dressing mirrors became free-standing. Initially they were made of silver or silver-gilt with trestle supports to the reverse, and designed en suite with lady’s dressing-sets. During the latter half of he 17th century Venetian and Parisian craftsmen supplied exquisitely decorated toilet mirrors of this design to the ladies of the court. By the early 18th century toilet mirrors had become sturdier, often standing on plinth bases, which contained drawers, the most sophisticated being serpentine wonted; numerous examples, particularly from Britain, survive – either of walnut and parcel-gilt or of plain or carved mahogany, and even with painted or japanned decoration. The mirrors were, however, principally rectangular, and it was not until the 1770s that oval dressing mirrors, later popularized by Sheraton, appeared. Regency and American Federal examples tend to be more rectangular, the plates often positioned horizontally, the decoration restrained in the extreme and often found only in the baluster-turning of the upright supports.
Cheval or standing dressing mirrors were first recorded in Paris at the court of Louis WE and the design was quickly adopted in Britain. Under Napoleon I cheval mirrors reached a new height of extravagance and luxury, being mounted in gilt-bronze with mythological deities, stars, and Classical reliefs, the plates often arched and supported by Classical columns. This style was copied throughout Europe, particularly in Britain, Austria, Germany, and in North America, and it was also revived in the later 19th century under Napoleon III (1852-70).
19TH-CENTURY MIRRORS
In North America mirrors with arched crests in the 18th-century style continued to be made in the early 19th century and had simple ornament, were narrower, and had less top-heavy proportions. The Empire style, which was associated with Napoleon then spread throughout Europe and then to North America. The pier mirrors of the early 19th century are characterized by the use of ebonized and giltwood decoration, often enriched with Classical reliefs and architectural motifs in gilt-composition (gilt-lead in Sweden), or perhaps framing a verre eglomise panel. The mirrors of the later 19th century were almost all inspired by precedents of earlier centuries. However, they usually betray their age by a slight misinterpretation or embellishment of earlier ornament. The Rococo Revival was superseded by the “Jacobethan” or 16th- and 17th-century Mannerist designs in the mid-19th 9th century; toward the end of the century both Neo-classical and Rococo styles prevailed and the revival mirrors of this period are frequently directly copied from published designs.
• MIRROR GLASS 18th-century glass tends to be fairly thin, with the bevelling soft and shallow, and the cutting uneven; 19th-century glass is thicker, the bevelling cut at an acute angle, and the cutting even; original glass is desirable, and if the glass is cloudy it may be possible to have it re-silvered; replacing glass should generally be avoided.
• FRAMES composition frames are vulnerable to damage and are less expensive than giltwood or silvered frames.
• COLLECTING “Chippendale” mirrors are notoriously difficult to date, particularly if they have been re-gilded and a discolouring wash has been painted on the reverse of the frame; 19th-century copies do, however, often betray themselves through a misunderstanding of motifs and ornament; Rococo Revival mirrors tend to have over-fussy decoration and heavier carving.

Writing furniture
Writing furniture can be loosely divided into three distinct categories: first there are those items with sloping fronts to support a book or writing material, into which such forms as the bureau (in all its many and varied styles), bureau bookcase, and bureau cabinet fall. Then there arc the flat-fronted, vertical forms, which include such pieces as the escritoire and the
secretaire, both of which developed from the 16th-centur Spanish vargueno. Finally there are writing tables, and kneehol desks, the latter being first originally conceived as a combination of both dressing table and bureau. Pedestal writing desks ands tables were often very grand pieces of furniture designed ti occupy a central position in the library of a great house.
Bureaux before 1840
One of the most enduring of furniture types, the bureau has been made since the 17th century. In French the word bureau denotes both a study and a type of writing desk; in English it has come to mean a piece of writing furniture with a fall front sloping at about 45 degrees when closed, or a desk with a cylinder front. The bureau Should not be confused with the vertical-fronted secretaire.
ENGLISH BUREAUX
The basic bureau form emerged in France in the second half of the 17th century, having developed from the fall-fronted cabinet (vargueno); shortly after, similar desks appeared in England. These had gate-legs to support the fall fronts when open; the insides included drawers and pigeon holes and, in some cases, sliding-top wells for concealing papers. The carcases were generally of oak, or pine, covered with figured veneers, the most common being walnut, sometimes “oyster” veneered, or even with “seaweed” marquetry. By c.1700 the gate-leg supports were replaced by sliding lopers at each side. The lower stages were generally separate from the writing sections and were made either as stands on turned or cabriole legs (1710-15), or as chest-of-drawers on bun feet.
About 1720 the bureau sections were fused with the chests, and bracket feet gradually superseded bun feet. By this time the classic bureau had evolved. Veneers included walnut, and also burr forms of elm, while provincial craftsmen favoured oak and elm in the solid. Decoration generally took the form of herringbone inlay, stringing, or crossbanding. Mouldings on the fronts of the dustboards between the drawers were superseded after c.1740 by cock-beaded edges to the drawers. This form continued with little change (although mahogany took the place of walnut) throughout the 18th century.
The bureau cabinet, with its superstructure of shelves, drawers, and pigeon holes enclosed by doors, represents a development of the basic bureau. Decoration took the form of fine veneering, marquetry, or even japanning. Early 18th-century examples may have elaborately carved and gilded crestings or simple overhanging straight-moulded cornices. After c.1715 plain, scrolled, broken, or even closed pediments were usual. Such cabinets were also impressive inside, with architectural features such as columns and pilasters, as well as drawers, cupboards, divisions for documents, and secret compartments. These grand bureaux were made in at least two parts and earlier examples before c.1710 in three; the cabinet section was separate from the writing bureau, which in turn was often divided from the chest-of-drawers it surmounted.
The bureau cabinet evolved into the ever more architectural bureau bookcase. The cupboard doors, constructed of chamfered wood panels or, increasingly, featuring moulded and glazed geometrical patterns, enclosed shelves instead of the earlier arrangements of storage compartments. The cupboard was set further forward on the bureau, placing less emphasis on the division between the two parts. Later 18th-century English bureau cabinets were lighter in appearance than early Georgian bureaux; nearly all had glazed upper sections, and some were veneered with either flame mahogany or satinwood. The influence of French cabinet-making is evident in the tambour writing tables and cylinder desks of the late 18th century designed by George Hepplewhite (7.1786) and Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806). Some are similar to the contemporary but by this time less fashionable bureaux, with a chests-of-drawers below writing sections fitted with drawers and pigeon holes; others are simply  tables with superstructures fitted up for writing, and have no more than two drawers in the friezes.

Cabinets-on-stands
Created for the storage of papers and valuables, the earliest cabinets, known as “table-cabinets” as they stood on tables rather than stands, came into fashion in the 16th century. During this period they were made in Tuscany with inlaid architectural decoration, and in Augsburg with stylized Mannerist marquetry depicting architectural ruins and mythical beasts in the style of Lorenz Stoer’s Geometrica et Perspectiva ( 1567); in Spain cabinets were made with Moorish-inspired mudejar (marquetry), or in ebony with parquetry (these were also produced in the Spanish Netherlands).
MARQUETRY AND LACQUERED CABINETS
The Baroque love of rich, florid decoration led to the fashion for oyster-veneered and marquetry cabinets-on-stands, the production of which was dominated by Huguenot craftsmen trained in Amsterdam and The Hague. In the late 17th century oyster-veneering was gradually superseded by such elaborate decoration as “seaweed” marquetry, which in turn gave way to Boulle marquetry on a tortoiseshell or kingwood ground. Interestingly the illusionistic floral marquetry panels executed by Andre-Charles Boulle (1642-1732) at the Gobelins workshops in Paris were no doubt inspired by Dutch 17th-century  still-life paintings. Floral marquetry cabinets, often enriched with mother-of-pearl or green-stained ivory, were executed throughout Europe from the 1660s, but the most celebrated makers were Jan van Mekeren (1658-1733) in Amsterdam, and Pierre Gole c.1620-84) in Paris. Often decorated with flowers and birds, even exotic parrots, Dutch and English examples of the William and Mary period (1689-1702) arc usually of walnut with oak-lined drawers, the stands enclosing two drawers and supported on four, five, or six baluster or bar-twist legs with waved stretchers and bun
Japanese and Chinese lacquer cabinets were first imported by the Fast India companies in the 17th century. Usually decorated with gilt chinoiseries on aubergine, black, or red lacquer grounds, they were mounted in silver, copper, or brass, with chased hinges and escutcheons. Oriental cabinets were exported without stands, and late 17th-century stands made in The Netherlands, Britain, and Germany tend to be in the florid Baroque taste, with caryatids in the angles and deep, pierced foliate aprons.
In the late 17th century, in response to the demand for and cost of Oriental lacquer, European craftsmen created japanning. This technique was first practised in Berlin by Gerard Dagly (1657-1710, and in England by John Stalker and George Parker who wrote A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing (1688). Later 18th-century examples are distinguished by the design of their stands, which were usually also japanned, and often enriched with Chinese fret angle-brackets.
In the 19th century the cabinet-on-stand was replaced by the display cabinet. As a result, 19th-century cabinets-on-stands tend to hark back to 17th-century prototypes, in particular those with ebony-and-tortoiseshell veneer, or of a full-blown Baroque character, with Boulle or floral marquetry and Pietro dure plaques.
• MARQUETRY CABINETS a flat stretcher is commonly used on the stand; frequently the legs have been replaced, and this will reduce value; ivory inlay is a sign of good quality; the marquetry on the inside of the cabinet should be of a rich contrast to the outside, as it has not been exposed to sunlight, and should retain its vibrant colours; during the 1770s and again in the 1840s there was an interest in antiquarianism, and 17th-century marquetry door panels were often removed and reused in more fashionable pieces of furniture.
• JAPANNING when chipped, it reveals a whitish gesso.

Wardrobes after 1840.
Wardrobes of the 19th century represent a natural progression from linen-presses and armoires, but the term “wardrobe” did not come into use until the second half of the 18th century, when it was popularized by the designer George Hepplewhite (d.1786). Although intended primarily for hanging clothing, rather than simply storing it folded, wardrobes, which were increasingly manufactured, did not completely supersede other storage furniture until the late 1800s. Moreover, in terms of both design and craftsmanship, the wardrobes that were produced are considered to be less interesting than their antecedents.
Wardrobes after 1840
Wardrobes of the 19th century represent a natural progression from linen-presses and armoires, but the term “wardrobe” did not come into use until the second half of the 18th century, when it was popularized by the designer George Hepplewhite (d.1786). Although intended primarily for hanging clothing, rather than simply storing it folded, wardrobes, which were increasingly manufactured, did not completely supersede other storage furniture until the late 1800s. Moreover, in terms of both design and craftsmanship, the wardrobes that were produced are considered to be less interesting than their antecedents.
TYPES OF WARDROBE
Wardrobes produced after c.1840 were influenced by the designs set out in the Encyclopaedia of Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture and Furniture (1833) by John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843) and, in North America, The Architecture of Country Houses by Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-52), published several times between 1850 and 1866. Designs in the Grecian, or “modern” Italian, Gothic, and Romanesque styles were among those illustrated; each of these wardrobes is tall, and possesses two doors of varied ornamentation, and the inside is evenly divided between hanging and shelf space. One wardrobe of particular interest was described as “a lady’s winged wardrobe” and resembled the traditional break-front bookcase in its construction. With a full-length door at either side, the centre portion was divided into two halves, the top with doors, the bottom with two short drawers and two long ones; these are reminiscent of the arrangement of the Georgian linen-press. It was “to be made of any fine wood, French polished, and showing no brasswork in any part of the front. The knobs are of mahogany or ebony, the mouldings on the doors are made to project, and the fronts of the drawers are made to recede, and to have a moulding raised upon them”. Inside the wardrobe great attention was paid to the practicalities: there were pegs provided for hanging dresses, shelves for storing bonnets and shoes, and sometimes even a locker with a fold-down front for dirty linen.
Wardrobes of the mid- to late-Victorian period are characterized by an increase in size and function with a corresponding decrease of ornamental flourishes, consistent with the large, heavy, utilitarian, and somewhat sombre
design ethos. Thus by the mid-1880s some wardrobes expanded to tripartite and break-
front forms, with a central wardrobe flanked by cupboards and drawer slides, or were “broken up” and lopsided, as in the example of the “Beaconsfield”. This was a type of asymmetrical, multi-purpose wardrobe, which had book and display shelves in addition to drawers and cupboards. Sometimes the ends of the wardrobes had open shelves and fret-cut decoration. Fitted wardrobes also gained favour during the mid-1880s, as did corner ones, which were designed to maximize space in small rooms.
Wardrobes also began to be designed en suite with other bedroom furniture. In the “Benedict” bedroom suite, items of furniture were duplicated for the husband and wife; hence the wardrobe had two cupboards and two mirrors and was intended to prevent marital strife. Various other anomalies were also produced, such as papier-mache suites; first introduced in the late 1830s, these had dark or black grounds that were enriched with mother-of-pearl inlay or brightly coloured floral painting. By the end of the century, some wardrobes had become increasingly ornamented, with marquetry inlaid decoration, moulded cornices, and cushion or cavetto friezes. Some Edwardian wardrobes were in painted satinwood, with the doors sporting swags, urns, and scrolling foliage, while others were plainer and more restrained decoratively, featuring only panelled doors.
REVIVAL STYLES
Many styles of wardrobe were revived and popularized in France, particularly the Renaissance and the “Louis” styles, which covered Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassical. Of these the Rococo Revival was probably the most important as it carried on until the end of the 19th century, when it was combined with Art Nouveau. There was also an interest in Naturalism (with direct allusions to flowers and fruit), Orientalism, and a revived interest in the Middle Ages. The craze for light woods mostly disappeared during the 1840s, and was followed by a taste for the darker woods.
In Germany and Austria, the Biedermeier style, with its geometrical and simplified forms, was still popular in the 1840s, although it ultimately gave way to Germanic interpretations of Gothic and Rococo. German Rococo was generally based on Parisian Louis XV forms, albeit heavier and more exaggerated than its prototype. It was made of carved natural woods, especially walnut and limewood.
The rest of Europe was dominated by various revival styles. Exhibitions, trade catalogues, and pattern-books prompted the dissemination of styles continent-wide, particularly the French “Louis” and the Renaissance styles; the latter was particularly well suited to machine production, and to wardrobes in particular. Each country adapted these styles in its own way, particularly in the second half of the century as each looked to its own cultural roots for inspiration.
CONSTRUCTION
As the furniture industry of each country was essentially localized, each used different woods for its pieces, especially in the hidden woods of the carcase. The British mainly used mahogany and satinwood for the better pieces, and pine for those less expensive. Mahogany–. ebony, oak, and even stained pearwood were the French choice from the 1840s onward. The Dutch used native oak and exotic woods imported from their colonies in the West Indies, whereas the rest of Europe generally imported their exotic woods from the Caribbean. Scandinavian countries used pine, as
did rural Alpine regions; it was frequently painted in a variety of colours and designs to hide the poor quality of the wood. Italy also used inexpensive woods in many
cases, although walnut and rosewood were still employed for grander pieces, which were frequently enriched with ivory or gilding. Spanish and Portuguese cabinet-makers copied and interpreted the
French styles while at the same time continuing their traditional heavily carved 17th-century-style furniture.
The majority of wardrobes were made by cabinetmakers. In Britain they were constructed so that cornices and plinths could be lifted off and drawers and shelving pulled out; French wardrobes were made in many parts, and were often fixed together with long bolts, and a hinge on the door allowed it to be lifted off.
While small free-standing mirrors or those attached to dressing tables were common, full-length mirrored doors on wardrobes were an important 19th-century innovation. Plate glass was used, and no doubt the lowering of the price of producing glass by Pilkington Brothers Ltd (est. 1826), at St Helens, near Liverpool, contributed to its more widespread use. Such mirrors, either sharply bevelled (unlike the gently bevelled glass of the 18th century), or in a decorative frame, was very thick, and usually placed on the single door in a single door wardrobe or on the centre door of a tripartite wardrobe.
• WOOD look for good quality and patina.
• MIRRORS the effect of damp can cause spotting on the silvering, but the mirrors can be resilvered; old mirrors give a mellow image, while new ones are very bright and give a sharp image.
• ALTERATIONS when large break-front wardrobes went out of fashion they were often broken up, and so they can be relatively scarce and very sought after; because of their size they could be reduced in both height and width, and it is usually possible to trace this by the proportions and by looking at the wood – screwholes should not appear on the wrong places; some linen-presses were made into wardrobes in the 19th century.
• COLLECTING Victorian mahogany wardrobes are very common; wardrobes in satinwood (a much more expensive wood) are the least common; Edwardian examples are often of the highest craftsmanship and therefore very desirable.
MAKERS’ MARKS
From 1741, Parisian cabinet-makers were ordered by their guilds to stamp their work, and although the requirement was removed some 50 years later the practice continued. During the 19th century,
part of the brasswork was often engraved with a script signature and the date of manufacture. English cabinet-makers were never legally required to identify their furniture, although metal-punched name stamps or brass name tablets were used by some makers during the 18th century. After 1820 attitudes changed, and the practice became more common: so much so that there are plenty of examples of furniture signed not only by its makers, but even by restorers, dealers, or retailers.
The branded mark of Holland & Sons (est 1803), of London, one of the most famous Victorian furniture makers in Britain.
Wardrobes produced after c.1840 were influenced by the designs set out in the Encyclopaedia of Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture and Furniture (1833) by John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843) and, in North America, The Architecture of Country Houses by Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-52), published several times between 1850 and 1866. Designs in the Grecian, or “modern” Italian, Gothic, and Romanesque styles were among those illustrated; each of these wardrobes is tall, and possesses two doors of varied ornamentation, and the inside is evenly divided between hanging and shelf space. One wardrobe of particular interest was described as “a lady’s winged wardrobe” and resembled the traditional break-front bookcase in its construction. With a full-length door at either side, the centre portion was divided into two halves, the top with doors, the bottom with two short drawers and two long ones; these are reminiscent of the arrangement of the Georgian linen-press. It was “to be made of any fine wood, French polished, and showing no brasswork in any part of the front. The knobs are of mahogany or ebony, the mouldings on the doors are made to project, and the fronts of the drawers are made to recede, and to have a moulding raised upon them”. Inside the wardrobe great attention was paid to the practicalities: there were pegs provided for hanging dresses, shelves for storing bonnets and shoes, and sometimes even a locker with a fold-down front for dirty linen.
Wardrobes of the mid- to late-Victorian period are characterized by an increase in size and function with a corresponding decrease of ornamental flourishes, consistent with the large, heavy, utilitarian, and somewhat sombre
design ethos. Thus by the mid-1880s some wardrobes expanded to tripartite and break-
front forms, with a central wardrobe flanked by cupboards and drawer slides, or were “broken up” and lopsided, as in the example of the “Beaconsfield”. This was a type of asymmetrical, multi-purpose wardrobe, which had book and display shelves in addition to drawers and cupboards. Sometimes the ends of the wardrobes had open shelves and fret-cut decoration. Fitted wardrobes also gained favour during the mid-1880s, as did corner ones, which were designed to maximize space in small rooms.
Wardrobes also began to be designed en suite with other bedroom furniture. In the “Benedict” bedroom suite, items of furniture were duplicated for the husband and wife; hence the wardrobe had two cupboards and two mirrors and was intended to prevent marital strife. Various other anomalies were also produced, such as papier-mache suites; first introduced in the late 1830s, these had dark or black grounds that were enriched with mother-of-pearl inlay or brightly coloured floral painting. By the end of the century, some wardrobes had become increasingly ornamented, with marquetry inlaid decoration, moulded cornices, and cushion or cavetto friezes. Some Edwardian wardrobes were in painted satinwood, with the doors sporting swags, urns, and scrolling foliage, while others were plainer and more restrained decoratively, featuring only panelled doors.
REVIVAL STYLES
Many styles of wardrobe were revived and popularized in France, particularly the Renaissance and the “Louis” styles, which covered Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassical. Of these the Rococo Revival was probably the most important as it carried on until the end of the 19th century, when it was combined with Art Nouveau. There was also an interest in Naturalism (with direct allusions to flowers and fruit), Orientalism, and a revived interest in the Middle Ages. The craze for light woods mostly disappeared during the 1840s, and was followed by a taste for the darker woods.
In Germany and Austria, the Biedermeier style, with its geometrical and simplified forms, was still popular in the 1840s, although it ultimately gave way to Germanic interpretations of Gothic and Rococo. German Rococo was generally based on Parisian Louis XV forms, albeit heavier and more exaggerated than its prototype. It was made of carved natural woods, especially walnut and limewood.
The rest of Europe was dominated by various revival styles. Exhibitions, trade catalogues, and pattern-books prompted the dissemination of styles continent-wide, particularly the French “Louis” and the Renaissance styles; the latter was particularly well suited to machine production, and to wardrobes in particular. Each country adapted these styles in its own way, particularly in the second half of the century as each looked to its own cultural roots for inspiration.
CONSTRUCTION
As the furniture industry of each country was essentially localized, each used different woods for its pieces, especially in the hidden woods of the carcase. The British mainly used mahogany and satinwood for the better pieces, and pine for those less expensive. Mahogany–. ebony, oak, and even stained pearwood were the French choice from the 1840s onward. The Dutch used native oak and exotic woods imported from their colonies in the West Indies, whereas the rest of Europe generally imported their exotic woods from the Caribbean. Scandinavian countries used pine, as
did rural Alpine regions; it was frequently painted in a variety of colours and designs to hide the poor quality of the wood. Italy also used inexpensive woods in many
cases, although walnut and rosewood were still employed for grander pieces, which were frequently enriched with ivory or gilding. Spanish and Portuguese cabinet-makers copied and interpreted the
French styles while at the same time continuing their traditional heavily carved 17th-century-style furniture.
The majority of wardrobes were made by cabinetmakers. In Britain they were constructed so that cornices and plinths could be lifted off and drawers and shelving pulled out; French wardrobes were made in many parts, and were often fixed together with long bolts, and a hinge on the door allowed it to be lifted off.
While small free-standing mirrors or those attached to dressing tables were common, full-length mirrored doors on wardrobes were an important 19th-century innovation. Plate glass was used, and no doubt the lowering of the price of producing glass by Pilkington Brothers Ltd (est. 1826), at St Helens, near Liverpool, contributed to its more widespread use. Such mirrors, either sharply bevelled (unlike the gently bevelled glass of the 18th century), or in a decorative frame, was very thick, and usually placed on the single door in a single door wardrobe or on the centre door of a tripartite wardrobe.
• WOOD look for good quality and patina.
• MIRRORS the effect of damp can cause spotting on the silvering, but the mirrors can be resilvered; old mirrors give a mellow image, while new ones are very bright and give a sharp image.
• ALTERATIONS when large break-front wardrobes went out of fashion they were often broken up, and so they can be relatively scarce and very sought after; because of their size they could be reduced in both height and width, and it is usually possible to trace this by the proportions and by looking at the wood – screwholes should not appear on the wrong places; some linen-presses were made into wardrobes in the 19th century.
• COLLECTING Victorian mahogany wardrobes are very common; wardrobes in satinwood (a much more expensive wood) are the least common; Edwardian examples are often of the highest craftsmanship and therefore very desirable.
MAKERS’ MARKS
From 1741, Parisian cabinet-makers were ordered by their guilds to stamp their work, and although the requirement was removed some 50 years later the practice continued. During the 19th century, part of the brasswork was often engraved with a script signature and the date of manufacture. English cabinet-makers were never legally required to identify their furniture, although metal-punched name stamps or brass name tablets were used by some makers during the 18th century. After 1820 attitudes changed, and the practice became more common: so much so that there are plenty of examples of furniture signed not only by its makers, but even by restorers, dealers, or retailers.
The branded mark of Holland & Sons (est 1803), of London, one of the most famous Victorian furniture makers in Britain.